Russia jails lawyers who acted for late opposition leader Alexei Navalny

A Russian court sentenced three lawyers who defended the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to up to five and a half years in prison, on charges of participating in an “extremist organization.”

Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptzer were arrested in October 2023 as Russian authorities intensified pressure on the jailed Kremlin critic, who died suddenly last February in an Arctic prison colony.

They were tried behind closed doors in the town of Petushki, east of Moscow, and accused of “using their status” to relay messages between Navalny and his colleagues.

Navalny had condemned the case as an example of the Soviet era, and an indicator of “the state of the rule of law in Russia.”

Igor Sergunin was the only one of the three who admitted the charge, according to independent reports, and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Alexei Liptzer was imprisoned for five years in a penal colony, and Vadim Kobzev was sentenced to five and a half years.

Kobzev’s lawyer, Andrey Grivtsov, said the evidence against them amounted to an illegal invasion of privacy.

He told BBC Russia: “They are not allowed to eavesdrop on meetings between a lawyer and his client in a penal colony in principle, there is a direct legislative ban.”

Andrei Orlov, Alexei Liptzer’s lawyer, told reporters that the court’s decision on Friday was very sad: “But we will not stop yet. We will continue to move.”

The three lawyers were put on trial near the penal colony in Pokrov, where Navalny was initially sent when he returned to Russia in January 2021, after surviving a nerve agent attack that he blamed on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin denied the allegation, and Navalny remained in Russian penal colonies until his death, north of the Arctic Circle and 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.

His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, blamed Putin for his death, which authorities attributed to “sudden death syndrome.”

Several months after Navalny’s arrest in 2021, a Moscow court banned Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and his regional offices, classifying them as “extremist.”

Navalny, who was already in prison on other charges, was later convicted of founding and financing an extremist organization as well.

The head of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, noted that the three lawyers were sentenced on January 17 – the same day Navalny was arrested and imprisoned upon his return to Russia from Germany: “Tell me this is a coincidence.”

Amnesty International said that by targeting lawyers “just because they are doing their job, the Russian authorities are dismantling what remains of the right to legal defence.”

According to investigators, the three men were members of the “extremist community” to which Navalny belonged, where they met the opposition leader and exchanged information with him.

Yulia Navalnaya said the three men were “political prisoners and should be released immediately.”

Another of Navalny’s lawyers, Olga Mikhailova, who has left Russia, said the sentences were “brutal and ridiculous” and that the men were punished for faithfully carrying out their “duties, professional and moral position.”

Mikhailova, whose offices were raided in 2023, says she herself was accused of extremism in absentia. Navalny’s other lawyer, Alexander Fidolov, also fled Russia after his three colleagues were arrested.

Following their arrest, Navalny appeared in court in October 2023 from a high-security penal colony east of Moscow and complained of being denied any legal representation.

He told the session, “My lawyer is not here. All the other lawyers are not here. No one is allowed to visit me. I am isolated and cut off from any information.”

Two months later, he was transferred to a remote penal colony called Polar Wolf, where he was held in a punishment cell and died at the age of 47. His widow rejected the cause of death given by the authorities as a lie.